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Obedience and Gratitude
“And if you surely forget Yahweh your God, and if you pursue new gods and serve them and bow to them, then I witness against you this day that you will perish.”
(Deuteronomu 8:19)
It struck me last night, as I was listening to a young seminary student preach on the text of Deuteronomy 8 and the matter of the interplay between the forgetfulness and remembrance of God’s people, that our remembrance or forgetfulness of God’s Law reflects the level of gratitude we have toward God for His provision. How often do we, as God’s people, act like spoiled, petulant children even in the face of God’s rich blessings and provision? How often do we, the church, insist on our own way rather than submitting to God’s Law? How often do we do what is right in our own eyes rather than listen to what God has told us to do? How many times do we need to hear, “Has God not said…” before we, the church, repent? Indeed, as the prophet Micah declares:
“He has declared to you, oh man, what is good! And what does Yahweh require from you? It is to do justice, to love covenant faithfulness, and to go along humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8)
Humility and pride are incompatible. Obedience and submission are what God calls for, not headstrong independence. God is not interested in the designs of men; He has told us how we are to live and how we are to worship Him. Yet, how often do we do our own thing instead? How often we try to tell God what is best for us instead of submitting when He declares what is truly best. Not only do we forget the things God has done, we wilfully forget and we show our ingratitude toward God by doing so. Yet, what does Moses remind us of here? If we surely forget, we will surely perish. Equal emphasis is placed on both clauses in the Hebrew above: If we forget — forget, we will perish — perish. In contrast, God calls upon us over and over to remember. And in remembering, we show our gratitude when we obey.
The parallel is a simple one. The theme is a recurring one. Oh Christian, what then will you do with that information?
Not a Manmade Deity
“These things you have done and I was silent; you compared me with yourself. I rebuke you! And I lay it before you.”
(Psalm 50:21)
I am grateful that God does not punish me for every sin that I commit. Were he to have done so, I would have been dead long ago…we all would be. Our problem is not that God does not punish every sin immediately upon us (that is a grace), but instead, our problem is we take his restraint as lenience. Just because God does not immediately discipline his own for sins committed does not mean the sins are not sins and outright rebellion against God — they are. It just means that God has chosen to exercise forbearance in these cases.
Our tendency, like the people of old, is to take this restraint for granted and to assume that God’s character is more like ours and is not as the Bible presents him. Man has a tendency of making gods in his own image — the term for these little gods is “idol.” They are puny and impotent and the God of the heavens will not stoop down to even be placed in the same category as these false gods. Yet, when we take God’s forbearance as lenience, then we essentially do just that — place the one true God in and amongst the gods of our own creation. And this God holds against us — he “lays it on the table” as it is part of the prosecution’s case against God’s own.
There is no question that Jesus died for our sins if we are born again believers in Jesus Christ. Yet, that does not mean we ought to live like those under condemnation. Let us live in the joyful obedience of those who submit to the mighty design of God. Let us not assume that He is like us but recognize that God’s ways are not man’s ways and stand in awe of Him.
The Preacher's Study 